It's been a hot minute...

Last Christmas...

So I know, I know it's not quite Thanksgiving yet but all I can think about is Christmas! And I know Last Christmas by Wham is sad but I can't get it out of my head!! So anyways, I am feeling a little sappy and sentimental tonight so I thought I'd write about my favorite time of year - Christmas!!! - and particularly last Christmas vs. this Christmas. Thanks to my friends Allison at Eggs Over Easy and Chels at Starbucks, Peace, and the Pursuit of a baby for their fun Christmas posts for the inspiration! 

So this Christmas will be the 13th Christmas Chris and I have spent together - holy smokes we are getting old! And out 9th married Christmas. I just love Christmas and Chris enjoys it but not near to the extent that I do. One of the funniest stories to come from Chris' childhood is when he would always refuse to come downstairs when it was time to open presents because he enjoyed making everyone wait and the time where he didn't get what he wanted, threw a tantrum and declared "That's it, Christmas is ruined" - I like to think of him as my cute little Grinch. 

I'm all....

And Chris is all....

It's not that bad...he enjoys it - I kid I kid!

Anyways, Christmas was always my favorite time of year. No matter what - it was a huge deal. My parents struggled throughout the years - my dad works in construction and my mom stayed home with us kids, so some years if work was light money was tight. But it didn't matter - Christmas was always huge. Mom would say (and still does to this day) Christmas is going to be light this year kids - and then would proceed to dump about eleventy thousand gifts in our laps on Christmas morning :) My favorite childhood memories are of Christmas morning and waking up before 5 am to sneak down the hall and see that santa had came, we would call Grandma and Paps, they would head over to watch us open presents, then we'd play, grab some donuts from the Handy Andy or mom would make biscuits and gravy, and we would nap and watch A Christmas Story - it was pure kid heaven. Then it's be off to Grandma's for more presents and a huge meal. 

In our years together Chris and I have spent Christmases apart, Christmases in Cayman, Christmases in Gas City, and last year we celebrated Christmas in our "forever home". And I loved them all for very different reasons. For the same reason that my favorite childhood memories are of Christmas morning, Chris and I have agreed to never be away from our house on Christmas morning when we have little ones. We want them to build those same memories in their own home. This year will be very bittersweet for me as my parents live 3.5 hours away and this will likely be my last Christmas celebrating there. 

 Christmas in our first town house

First Christmas in our forever home!

 2011 Christmas in Gas City and Silly Family Photo minus Ash!

A Very Cayman Christmas!

Last year we went all our decorating for Christmas as it was the first year in our house. We also did a fun 25 days of Christmas holiday bucket list. One of those items involved staying in, ordering dinner and watching a Christmas movie. We of course watched "Elf" and ordered Chinese. At the time we were actively trying to get pregnant with no luck, we wanted a baby so bad and had started acupuncture and were just beginning exploring fertility clinics. We ordered a lot of chinese food and got a lot of fortunes and here is what they said...

We were convinced they mean a baby was in our future. We had been trying almost a year and get a fortune saying we will gain something we've always wanted and never give up! Well the fortunes were right for sure - we just took the long road to get there! Another item on the list was write Christmas haikus to one another. First of all I'm not a poet or a writer and we had to google what a haiku even was! Here is what we wrote - mine sucked - but Chris' = amazeballs. Perhaps he isn't a Grinch! :)

Mine read: Santa had reindeer, and he even had some elves, all I want is you. (Sucks I know - don't judge). Chris' read: Happy Holidays, Loving you on this Christmas, Three of Us Next year. I saved that and the fortunes and have looked at them often over the past year. It's almost a year to the day we wrote these and got those fortunes and it still makes my heart so happy.  And even though we won't be able to share this Christmas per se with our little one - we still plan to make it special and document it for Baby Wik as the first Christmas you were in momma's belly. 

If you are out there struggling with infertility - or anything for that matter - remember - never. give. up. Things will always turn around. Chris reminds me all the time - life is a perfect balance, the yin and the yang, and you have to go through the bad to get the good. And when life really seems to suck and you feel like Jesus I can't possible handle one more thing, one more disappointment, one more struggle, know that the good times are coming because when you are on the bottom the only place to go is up! 

I hope everyone is enjoying the kick off to the holiday season! Can't wait to share our fun adventures this season with you! 

XOXO

K